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Friday 8 May 2026
Commentary: Trump-Xi Summit puts Taiwan's chip industry at center of global politics

US President Donald Trump is expected to visit Beijing on May 14-15 for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. If the trip proceeds as planned, it would mark Trump's first visit to Beijing since returning to the White House and the most consequential meeting between the two leaders since the escalation of the US-China technology war reshaped the global economy.

Friday 8 May 2026
Samsung reportedly scales back Micro LED TV push as new TV chief takes over
Samsung Electronics is reportedly scaling back its Micro LED TV business, as high production costs and limited demand weigh on the commercial prospects of the premium display technology, according to ETNews.
Friday 8 May 2026
Analysis: Samsung's China appliance exit signals Chinese brands' upmarket march
Samsung Electronics remains one of the global capital market's major beneficiaries of the AI memory boom, with its market value briefly surpassing US$1 trillion in May. Yet another part of the company's business is rapidly shrinking in China.
Friday 8 May 2026
Samsung reportedly testing 1.4nm Exynos 2800 with 96MB cache

Samsung is reportedly testing a next-generation Exynos processor that could push the company's chip ambitions beyond smartphones, with early specifications pointing to a 1.4nm-class design, a 10-core CPU, a large 96MB system-level cache, and a possible PC variant aimed at Google's Chromebook ecosystem.

Friday 8 May 2026
PlayNitride pivots to MicroLED optical interconnects as Samsung TV strategy shifts

MicroLED applications are expanding across automotive, wearable, and display markets, but the sector is facing mounting pressure. Following Sony Honda Mobility's cancellation of the Afeela 1 electric vehicle (EV) project, MicroLED adoption in automotive displays has suffered a setback. At the same time, reports that Samsung may scale back its MicroLED TV business are raising fresh concerns over PlayNitride's 2026 growth outlook.

Thursday 7 May 2026
Chinese semiconductor equipment makers deepen SEA OSAT presence
Chinese semiconductor equipment makers CCtech and Nextool Technology are expanding into Southeast Asia's OSAT hubs as Malaysia and Singapore emerge as key packaging and testing centers amid global supply chain restructuring and southbound shifts. Both companies said surging AI demand and fast growth in power electronics are setting up a new upcycle for test and packaging equipment.
Thursday 7 May 2026
South Korea's US$344.3 million push to localize power chips
South Korea plans to provide KRW500 billion (US$344.3 million) in state funding for a large-scale research and development project aimed at localizing next-generation power semiconductors, ETNews reported.
Thursday 7 May 2026
Pentagon deploys 100,000 AI agents, escalating algorithm warfare with China
The Pentagon has deployed more than 100,000 AI agents through its GenAI.mil platform, marking a broader shift toward algorithm-driven warfare and expanding the US military's push into AI-powered combat operations.
Thursday 7 May 2026
From market leader to exit: Samsung pulls out of China's home appliances market

Samsung Electronics' decision to withdraw from China's home appliance market marks the end of a long and gradual erosion of its once-dominant position, one that has unfolded even as the company posts record profits globally.

Thursday 7 May 2026
From chips to telecoms, South Korea faces an AI-era labor reckoning
Labor tensions across South Korea's technology sector are intensifying, and the conflict is no longer confined to traditional disputes between workers and management. Increasingly, the country's AI-driven economic transformation is exposing fractures within workforces themselves, as employees in faster-growing business divisions demand a larger share of corporate profits. In contrast, weaker divisions struggle to keep pace.
Thursday 7 May 2026
ByteDance's Doubao tests paid AI tiers to challenge ChatGPT subscriptions
China's AI market has expanded rapidly through free and low-cost offerings, but rising computing costs and deeper enterprise adoption are beginning to reshape the sector's business models. ByteDance-backed Doubao is now testing paid subscription plans priced between CNY68–500 (US$9–69) per month, signaling a formal shift toward tiered monetization.
Thursday 7 May 2026
Exclusive: China's automakers leap forward in next generation of car architecture

As the global auto industry shifts toward software-defined vehicles (SDVs), the evolution of electronic and electrical architectures has become one of the most important determinants of future competitiveness.

Thursday 7 May 2026
China token prices rise while US hyperscalers flood AI infrastructure
Generative AI demand is intensifying the global race for computing power, widening the gap between China and the US in AI infrastructure investment. Yet while US hyperscalers continue to expand capex aggressively, China's AI market is seeing token prices rise rather than fall, signalling that pricing is increasingly shaped by supply constraints and evolving AI business models rather than investment scale alone.
Thursday 7 May 2026
EU joins telecom coalition as 6G rivalry with China intensifies

The European Union has become the first strategic partner of the Global Coalition on Telecommunications, or GCOT, expanding a Western-led telecom policy framework as governments seek to shape next-generation network infrastructure and the race toward 6G.

Thursday 7 May 2026
Gen5 SSD race shifts to power and AI: Micron, YMTC diverges
As demand for PCs and edge AI accelerates, the consumer SSD market is entering a transition to the PCIe 5.0 (Gen5) era. For notebooks — long a core OEM segment — power consumption and thermal limits have become the decisive barriers to large-scale adoption of next-generation SSDs.